Too many drops together make an ocean. Likewise, everything when collectively occurs, even if negligible individually, has unpredictable consequences. Similar is the case of our textbooks. You may get confused. But after reading this, you may have a rough structure in your mind.
As we all know, ours is a bookish system, whereas the West is a dynamic one. So we’re highly dependent on our textbooks. Even after the introduction of several educational bodies and committees, India lacks what one can call “a whole success” and “Are waah! Full tragedy!”
The availability of good quality textbooks is still a dream for many Indian students. Poor quality of raw materials used, tapping of information from ingenuine sources, etc., are some of the inputs. This is not a new problem. In the old days, it was much more explicit. Nowadays too, there’s much for haha.
Take the Samagra portal and search for 11th and 12th textbooks. You may not have access to all textbooks. The digital yuga too isn’t free from curses of inefficacy.
The Kerala State government ensures its schoolgoers standard textbooks up to class 10. But after it, many students are forced to be contented with counterfeit textbooks. Many of the students and teachers are already accustomed to it, but is it the same with everyone?
Fortunately or unfortunately, for me, it’s one of the major flaws of the system. What if one formally is a higher secondary student but has no true idea of what Mx learns? If education is an investment, then why should one be unethical?
It was during one of our political science sessions that I felt the spark. We were learning about the Central Election Commission. An interesting topic it was and so too was my attention.
Our teacher was speaking of fundamental changes that occurred in the CEC across these years. She said that it was during the N K Sheshan period that the CEC became a multimember body. She used a counterfeit textbook of class 11 political science for reference.
I am an avid reader and I felt like she was trying to refer to Late Shri T N Sheshan sir. I just corrected it. She shamelessly ordered all students to correct so with their pens. Further, she normalised it by saying that such things are so common in copy textbooks. I just felt so shocked. It wasn’t a single incident.
A year later, the same teacher asked us which Indian minister resigned from his position due to the display of inefficiency during the Sino Indian war, “V K Krishna Menon.”
“V Krishna Menon,” she affirmed. “Teacher, but it’s V K!” I opposed. “But it’s given as V Krishna Menon,” she argued.
If it’s not carelessness, then what? I was a central government school student till class 10. We were provided with NCERT textbooks and the journey was quite nice. But now NCERT books too are entangled in controversies.
Yet, for parents whose children always got genuine textbooks, it was something painful. My father picked up some related facts. He also advised moving legally. I was just hopeless. Because I once postally sent a petition for the same to an HC judge even before my parents recommended the same.
When I contacted him for the same, he replied that I should come to his office. My father said that the system lacked uniformity. My mother too had her own arguments. For a class 10 dropout like her, it was much more serious than for me. We three together found some things. I am not sure about their authenticity, yet let me present them.
The fund allocation is low. No one can defy me. Plenty of articles are available on this topic. Insufficient proofreading. This article can explain why many of our textbooks have so many errors and they elaborately say about the need for an excellent proofreading service.
We also lack a good textbook distribution setup. When it comes to this, I am quite personal.
Once, regarding the availability of Kerala history textbooks, I contacted Capt . It was after great toil that I found their details. They said that they take tenders from almost all schools in Kerala. I sadly said that our school wasn’t having such a thing. They asked me from which school I was and I replied.
They told me that they too were able to do nothing as it was lockdown then. We don’t have a specific authority itself. If (as I’ve already said) this is the thing with government textbooks, then what it will be for hoax textbooks? As I’ve already mentioned, even NCERT books aren’t exempted from harsh remarks.
Privatisation, yeah, that’s a good thing, but can’t the govt implement it after gaining public consent? It may seem impractical, but policies are meant for development and development has to be for all, na? Plus, the spontaneous, unplanned realisation makes it even worse.
Next is the justification part. I asked my teachers why they provided us with copy textbooks. They said that the NCERT/govt textbooks were tough to comprehend, whereas these were easy and convenient.
So let me ask something. We relied on textbooks printed by the very government agencies up to class 10, then what’s much special for the higher classes? If there too arises criticism, then there’s a single stand for me: the whole system should change.
There can be many other reasons. All are guilty here for one or another reason. If anybody resonates with this, please just fight together, for there are so many things like that. Unheard or not addressed at all.